Abstract
The mechanism regulating non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) is unclear. In this study, we aimed to determine the roles of DENN domain containing 2A (circDENND2A) in the progression of NSCLC. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are composited by "head to tail" splicing of coding or non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), whose crucial roles in human cancers had been revealed. CircDENND2A, a new circRNA, was revealed to induce cell proliferation and migration. Our data indicated that circDENND2A was a probable oncogene in human cancers. However, the roles of circDENND2A in NSCLC remained unknown. Here, we demonstrated that circDENND2A was down-regulated in NSCLC samples. Loss-of-function assays showed circDENND2A knockdown suppressed cell growth via inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis and inhibited cell migration and invasion. Bioinformatics analysis and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network analysis revealed that circDENND2A was involved in regulating cell cycle and tumor protein p53 (TP53) signaling via miR-34a/CCNE1 (cyclin E1). Further validation showed that circDENND2A could directly bind to miR-34a, promoting CCNE1 expression in NSCLC. In addition, rescue assays demonstrated that restoration of CCNE1 significantly impaired the suppressive effects of circDENND2A silencing in terms of NSCLC growth, migration, and invasion. We thought this study indicated that circDENND2A/miR-34a/CCNE1 may be a potential therapeutic target for NSCLC.